Finally. Ugh, it must have fallen off. Must have been that crazy dream I had. Probably should stop listening to that audiobook my cousin gave me last week for my birthday. Flatland by Edwin Abbott. “You’re nerdy, so you’ll love it!” he said. I would have, if it weren’t for the guy’s boring way of talking. Even a drone could have done it better, while this guy seemed to have a bad attitude. Was it twooooo dimensional for him? Ha…ha…ha... Bah, wish I could just read it.

I search for my clothes, trying to remember the weird dream I had. The beginning was clear to me. I was on the floor, with my knees near my chest with my arms wrapped around my legs. Using my hands, I felt the wall and the floor. Couldn’t confirm on a ceiling. “Hello?” I might have said that. Was there someone else there too? If there was I probably would have –

Bump – OWWWWWWWW

Knee casualty, boy I’ve had one too many of those in my life. Usually my room is kept really tidy, but not today. The emptier it is, the better. Fewer things to deal with, nothing that could get in my way. Just like my dream.

Ok, now I remember it better. I was in a box with a camera-like shutter sound echoing around. I held my breath, waiting and anticipating for the sound to come out so that I could find it. After a few tries, I found it! It felt rectangular. Open. Close. Open. Close. Like eyes, I suppose. But why? Binary, that’s what I think of, but fuzzy binary logic. Do I dare stick my hand through? There are only two possibilities: yes or no. Up or down. On or off. You or me. Wait, are you looking at me? No way of knowing, but if you’re still doing that, I’ll count down…3…2…1…(shutter close).

Why would someone look at me? Was there even someone there? I felt like someone was watching me. But only half the time. Maybe they were just checking on me, making sure I was still alive. Wait, I could have been dead. Or somewhere in between? Is that what sleep is? A superposition of being alive and dead. But I was alive in my dream! Or was I in a superposition while I was in a superposition in real life. SUPERPERCEPTIONNNN. You can’t know for sure until you see me…in my dream that is.

At a certain point, though, I knew I was in a pretty entangled situation as it was with no clear way out. Time seems to be passing by with no end in sight. Open. Close. Open. Close. Who could stand this? On. Off. I’m going crazy. I NEED to get out. You. Me. Desperation started kicking in. YES. I BANGED the walls with my fists, YELLING and SHOUTING. NO. SCREAMING FOR HELP……until I woke up.

Opening the front door, I hear the light rain falling on the ground. I tap my stick on the ground ahead of me to hear how big the splash is. Meh, not too deep. I make my way carefully down the stairs, trying to not fall over, and start walking over to the lecture hall. Cars to my left. Pedestrians to my right. Destination up ahead. Messy apartment behind me. I got to the corner, waiting patiently for the signal to cross. Good thing you can hear it. Ah, walk sign is on! Observation is key if you’re ever me. Nothing is ever certain about your surroundings. Everything is entangled, each entity in a state of superposition with varying uncertainties. You make an observation, perform an experiment testing all of your senses: taste…smell…touch…sound–

ZOOOOOOOM

I felt the car whoosh past just inches in front of me.

“Ma’am, are you ok?”

“Yes, I am fine! Walk sign was on, correct?”

“Yeah, that car just ran a red light. I’m just glad you’re ok. Luckily you stopped right where you were. No way you would have seen him coming.”

“Close call indeed! Sorry, I need to run off! I’m already late for a class I’m teaching. Thanks!”

A little shaken, I hurry over to the lecture hall building and make my way through the entrance. With a little bit of time, I let the air of familiarity settle in and calm me down. The smell of fresh coffee ready to turn into new ideas. The laughter from conversations. The soft give of the hardwood floor with every step. The taste of toothpaste, still in my mouth from my morning routine. Despite the fact that my life changed when I lost my vision many years ago, it’s still good to know that some things remain the same in a world filled with chaos.

I find the lecture hall door, turn the knob, and walk in. All chatter comes to a dying halt.

“Hi class! Sorry for being late. Let’s get started, shall we? Last time we talked about Schrodinger’s cat and today we’ll talk about the human in a box…sorry, PARTICLE in a box.”

(Laughter)

Tell me I’m still dreaming.

About the Author:

Joshua Yoon is a graduate student at Stanford University, inspired by science, art, and music.

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Quantum Theory: A to Z

R is for ... Reality

Since the predictions of quantum theory have been right in every experiment ever done, many researchers think it is the best guide we have to the nature of reality. Unfortunately, that still leaves room for plenty of ideas about what reality really is!

I is for ... Information

Many researchers working in quantum theory believe that information is the most fundamental building block of reality.

G is for ... Gluon

These elementary particles hold together the quarks that lie at the heart of matter.

Y is for ... Young's Double Slit Experiment

In 1801, Thomas Young proved light was a wave, and overthrew Newton’s idea that light was a “corpuscle”.

C is for ... Computing

The rules of the quantum world mean that we can process information much faster than is possible using the computers we use now.

L is for ... Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

At CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, this machine is smashing apart particles in order to discover their constituent parts and the quantum laws that govern their behaviour.

T is for ... Tunnelling

This happens when quantum objects “borrow” energy in order to bypass an obstacle such as a gap in an electrical circuit. It is possible thanks to the uncertainty principle, and enables quantum particles to do things other particles can’t.

I is for ... Interferometer

Some of the strangest characteristics of quantum theory can be demonstrated by firing a photon into an interferometer: the device’s output is a pattern that can only be explained by the photon passing simultaneously through two widely-separated slits.

S is for ... Superposition

Quantum objects can exist in two or more states at once: an electron in superposition, for example, can simultaneously move clockwise and anticlockwise around a ring-shaped conductor.

B is for ... Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC)

At extremely low temperatures, quantum rules mean that atoms can come together and behave as if they are one giant super-atom.

X is for ... X-ray

In 1923 Arthur Compton shone X-rays onto a block of graphite and found that they bounced off with their energy reduced exactly as would be expected if they were composed of particles colliding with electrons in the graphite. This was the first indication of radiation’s particle-like nature.

S is for ... Schrödinger Equation

This is the central equation of quantum theory, and describes how any quantum system will behave, and how its observable qualities are likely to manifest in an experiment.

H is for ... Hidden Variables

One school of thought says that the strangeness of quantum theory can be put down to a lack of information; if we could find the “hidden variables” the mysteries would all go away.

L is for ... Light

We used to believe light was a wave, then we discovered it had the properties of a particle that we call a photon. Now we know it, like all elementary quantum objects, is both a wave and a particle!

W is for ... Wave-particle duality

It is possible to describe an atom, an electron, or a photon as either a wave or a particle. In reality, they are both: a wave and a particle.

D is for ... Decoherence

Unless it is carefully isolated, a quantum system will “leak” information into its surroundings. This can destroy delicate states such as superposition and entanglement.

T is for ... Teleportation

Quantum tricks allow a particle to be transported from one location to another without passing through the intervening space – or that’s how it appears. The reality is that the process is more like faxing, where the information held by one particle is written onto a distant particle.

F is for ... Free Will

Ideas at the heart of quantum theory, to do with randomness and the character of the molecules that make up the physical matter of our brains, lead some researchers to suggest humans can’t have free will.

M is for ... Many Worlds Theory

Some researchers think the best way to explain the strange characteristics of the quantum world is to allow that each quantum event creates a new universe.

O is for ... Objective reality

Niels Bohr, one of the founding fathers of quantum physics, said there is no such thing as objective reality. All we can talk about, he said, is the results of measurements we make.

N is for ... Nonlocality

When two quantum particles are entangled, it can also be said they are “nonlocal”: their physical proximity does not affect the way their quantum states are linked.

Q is for ... Qubit

One quantum bit of information is known as a qubit (pronounced Q-bit). The ability of quantum particles to exist in many different states at once means a single quantum object can represent multiple qubits at once, opening up the possibility of extremely fast information processing.

Q is for ... Quantum biology

A new and growing field that explores whether many biological processes depend on uniquely quantum processes to work. Under particular scrutiny at the moment are photosynthesis, smell and the navigation of migratory birds.

U is for ... Uncertainty Principle

One of the most famous ideas in science, this declares that it is impossible to know all the physical attributes of a quantum particle or system simultaneously.

E is for ... Entanglement

When two quantum objects interact, the information they contain becomes shared. This can result in a kind of link between them, where an action performed on one will affect the outcome of an action performed on the other. This “entanglement” applies even if the two particles are half a universe apart.

B is for ... Bell's Theorem

In 1964, John Bell came up with a way of testing whether quantum theory was a true reflection of reality. In 1982, the results came in – and the world has never been the same since!

R is for ... Radioactivity

The atoms of a radioactive substance break apart, emitting particles. It is impossible to predict when the next particle will be emitted as it happens at random. All we can do is give the probability that any particular atom will have decayed by a given time.

S is for ... Schrödinger’s Cat

A hypothetical experiment in which a cat kept in a closed box can be alive and dead at the same time – as long as nobody lifts the lid to take a look.

W is for ... Wavefunction

The mathematics of quantum theory associates each quantum object with a wavefunction that appears in the Schrödinger equation and gives the probability of finding it in any given state.

A is for ... Atom

This is the basic building block of matter that creates the world of chemical elements – although it is made up of more fundamental particles.

V is for ... Virtual particles

Quantum theory’s uncertainty principle says that since not even empty space can have zero energy, the universe is fizzing with particle-antiparticle pairs that pop in and out of existence. These “virtual” particles are the source of Hawking radiation.

U is for ... Universe

To many researchers, the universe behaves like a gigantic quantum computer that is busy processing all the information it contains.

K is for ... Kaon

These are particles that carry a quantum property called strangeness. Some fundamental particles have the property known as charm!

R is for ... Randomness

Unpredictability lies at the heart of quantum mechanics. It bothered Einstein, but it also bothers the Dalai Lama.

P is for ... Planck's Constant

This is one of the universal constants of nature, and relates the energy of a single quantum of radiation to its frequency. It is central to quantum theory and appears in many important formulae, including the Schrödinger Equation.

P is for ... Probability

Quantum mechanics is a probabilistic theory: it does not give definite answers, but only the probability that an experiment will come up with a particular answer. This was the source of Einstein’s objection that God “does not play dice” with the universe.

Z is for ... Zero-point energy

Even at absolute zero, the lowest temperature possible, nothing has zero energy. In these conditions, particles and fields are in their lowest energy state, with an energy proportional to Planck’s constant.

H is for ... Hawking Radiation

In 1975, Stephen Hawking showed that the principles of quantum mechanics would mean that a black hole emits a slow stream of particles and would eventually evaporate.

J is for ... Josephson Junction

This is a narrow constriction in a ring of superconductor. Current can only move around the ring because of quantum laws; the apparatus provides a neat way to investigate the properties of quantum mechanics.

A is for ... Alice and Bob

In quantum experiments, these are the names traditionally given to the people transmitting and receiving information. In quantum cryptography, an eavesdropper called Eve tries to intercept the information.

M is for ... Multiverse

Our most successful theories of cosmology suggest that our universe is one of many universes that bubble off from one another. It’s not clear whether it will ever be possible to detect these other universes.

C is for ... Cryptography

People have been hiding information in messages for millennia, but the quantum world provides a whole new way to do it.

D is for ... Dice

Albert Einstein decided quantum theory couldn’t be right because its reliance on probability means everything is a result of chance. “God doesn’t play dice with the world,” he said.

A is for ... Act of observation

Some people believe this changes everything in the quantum world, even bringing things into existence.

G is for ... Gravity

Our best theory of gravity no longer belongs to Isaac Newton. It’s Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. There’s just one problem: it is incompatible with quantum theory. The effort to tie the two together provides the greatest challenge to physics in the 21st century.